The streets of the inner north are known for being tree-lined, but one suburb is also home to some very colourful residents. Photo: Supplied.
After another bird death on Canberra’s streets, an advocacy group has renewed its calls for drivers to slow down.
Convener of the Save the Narrabundah Peafowl group Timothy DeWan says the suburb is home to a peacock population in the “high 30s or low 40s”.
Their origin story is lost to history, but they potentially escaped from the old Mugga Lane zoo to make Narrabundah their home for more than three decades.
Their population has endured, as generations of the birds – admired across the city – have peachicks, despite the main threats of foxes and cars.
A male peacock was found dead just a short time after he was struck by a car in late July.
For Mr DeWan, losing any member of the muster (the term for a group of peacocks) is tragic – but it’s become a rarer occurrence.
About five years ago, the group spent 18 months lobbying the ACT Government to install wildlife crossing signs in their suburbs as a protection measure.
“They’re less common than they used to be,” Mr DeWan said of car-related peacock deaths.
“The signs have been useful. Does everyone read them? No, not everyone does.
“But the very fact that they’re there – and the fact that the people who live in the community see them – makes them a constant reminder that they’ve got to slow down.”
But he attributes the group’s success in saving peacock lives to a three-pronged approach: signs, road layout changes and public opinion.
“The signs, by themselves, would have had some impact. But we were of the view early on that it had to be accompanied by other work.”
Mr DeWan said part of their work was studying the road network to see where any changes could be implemented to prevent crashes and slow drivers.
As ground-based birds, peacocks mostly get around by walking and rarely fly, which makes them vulnerable to passing vehicles.
This young female peahen, known as Penny, was killed on La Perouse Street in February 2021. Photo: Supplied.
Mr DeWan described the birds as the ‘canary in the coal mine’ in designing or upgrading local roads, especially amid growing density in the area.
He also said that after a “lot of convincing”, the government modified the Carnegie Crescent-La Perouse Street intersection, which reduced the rate of car crashes.
He said that while these measures might be born out of saving Canberra’s peacocks, their ideas pull double duty by protecting students at the nearby Red Hill Primary School.
“[We] said to the government that any birds that big are the same size as a child on a bicycle … We told them, ‘Today it’s a peacock, tomorrow it could be a child at the local primary school’.
“These are small streets – they are not super large … Most of the streets that these peacocks are walking along are shared.”
The group also posts regularly to social media, in a push to remind people to “calm down” and to share updates about the lives and adventures of the peacocks.
He urged drivers passing through Narrabundah – as well as other inner south suburbs – to keep a firmer eye on their speed.
“Fundamentally, I think it is driver behaviour,” he said when asked what needs to change to help to protect the peacocks.
“If you see a 60 km zone [sign], then you know that’s the limit. We’re not trying to force people to slow down to an unrealistic speed in the streets, but we are asking them to keep their eyes open.”
In 2018, the government backed down from a proposal to cull the peacocks after an outpouring of support from locals.
When asked by Region if they were considering any further protection measures, an ACT Government spokesperson ruled out any further “signage or actions”.
“The ACT Government continues to support inner south communities in managing the peafowl population,” they said.
“No data has been collected on the number of peafowl deaths in the area. The population of peacocks in the area has remained relatively consistent over the years.”
For Mr DeWan, the peacocks are a treasured part of living in the suburb – and well worth protecting.
“We’ve had so many people say Canberra was a boring place … Then they come to Narrabundah and see something quirky like peacocks in the street!
“They’ve got a good nature about them. They don’t swoop cyclists, and they don’t chew telephone cables or anything like that. They’re just inquisitive and interesting.”
